Asian leaders lack dynamism: Survey

Americans are ahead at developing world-class teams.

A handful of exceptions aside, Asian leaders generally fall short of dynamic leadership qualities, according to a Korn/Ferry-Economist Intelligence Unit survey of more than 300 executives on their views about Asia's growing influence on the world stage, specifically in terms of the emerging people management issues and leadership trends they are seeing.

This plays out in three ways: The ability of leaders to drive innovation; the level of investment in, and commitment to, developing world-class leaders and teams; and the extent to which business leaders excel at establishing best leadership practices.

On all three counts, Asia-region managers appear to trail their counterparts in the US. For instance, while 23 per cent of Asian leaders are thought to 'greatly excel' at driving innovation, almost half (48 per cent) of American leaders are given this ranking.

Similarly, 19 per cent and 50 per cent of Asian and American leaders, respectively, do particularly well at developing world-class teams and co-leaders.

On leadership best practices, the gap is even larger: 12 per cent for Asian leaders, and 53 per cent for those in the United States. Generally, Japanese leaders tend to score better than their counterparts elsewhere in Asia""and also slightly ahead of those in Western Europe.

Leaders in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East/Africa regions tend to score lower in all three areas.

One finding is that in the coming years, the most forward-looking individuals, firms and societies will choose to draw on the best practices offered by the West and the East. This unique mix of knowledge and experiences will make for a more effective approach to leadership.

Second, rapid growth and more Asian MNCs have raised Asia's profile, with over 70 per cent of surveyed executives rating the region's influence on the evolution of global business practices as 'very important', compared with 64 per cent for the US and 32 per cent for Western Europe.

Third, within Asia, Greater China holds first place, with 89 per cent of respondents seeing it as very important. India comes second, with 73 per cent of the 'vote'- far bigger than Japan's 39 per cent and ASEAN's 37 per cent.

Clearly, Asia- and especially China and India- are shaping both the present and future with regard to business practices, the report observes.